The demo of Doom 3 is finally available. It’s a giant download at 462 MB. It is available via BitTorrent which is nice. I’m sure I helped out a lot of people today since I started the download last night and then forgot all about it and left it running until I got home from work today.
The Linux version is still not ready, but the Windows version works fine on Linux using Cedega from TransGaming. I don’t think my computer even meets the official specs, but it seemed OK to me. I have an Athlon XP 2000+ with 256 MB DDR RAM and a GeForce 3 with 64 MB. The gameplay was sometimes a little choppy and the load time between levels seemed to take forever, but otherwise it seemed fine.
As for the game itself, it’s scary. Very scary. I’m glad I didn’t go out and spend $50 on it because I probably won’t play much more of it. I’m sure the guys in my class will laugh at me, but this game is just not my idea of fun anymore. Visually it’s very impressive, but it’s just not my style.
Once the zombies come out, you’re basically walking around in the dark the whole time. You have a flashlight, but you can’t use it at the same time as your pistol. The gameplay was pretty much like this – shine the flashlight on the zombie, switch to the pistol and shoot until the groaning stops, then switch back to the flashlight.
After playing for a while, I walked out of my office to go to the living room. I actually turned around and looked down the hall to make sure nothing was sneaking up behind me. I’m definitely too old for this game. Ben, don’t even attempt this one.
What, are you kidding? A four-year-old Diablo 2 still scares the bejeezus out of me.
Just wait until our kids are playing DOOM X, and thinking that we are so uncool for not making it past vintage DOOM 3! Yep, we are really going to be lame in our old age.
Oh come on! Getting scared half to death is the point of the game. The point-the-flashlight and look-around-every-corner gameplay stops after the first two or three hours and starts to resemble the original doom and doom 2 style a lot more. But if that’s just not your cup of tea then I guess I can understand.
Too late, Ben. The kids already think we’re lame. And we’re not even thirty yet. Guess it’s all down hill from here…
You are right, Paige. It’s all down hill after 30!
I can see a real generation gap- I’ve never played Doom. I’m still excited by a good game of Solitare!